The family of Michelle Warner reacts as Mark Augustin Castellano is walked into the courtroom in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center for opening statements Tuesday. He is accused of killing Warner, his girlfriend, and burying her body in West Texas.

The family of Michelle Warner reacts as Mark Augustin Castellano is walked into the courtroom in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center for opening statements Tuesday. He is accused of killing Warner, his

Prosecutors and the defense did not dispute that fact Tuesday, the first day of Castellano's murder trial.

The 39-year-old man is accused of killing Warner in an argument, storing her body in a plastic container and then driving across Texas to bury it in an oil field near Midland.

Jurors heard dueling narratives of what led to Warner's death. Prosecutors said that in a violent argument, Castellano grabbed his girlfriend by the throat and strangled her for more than a minute and a half. But Castellano's attorney, Eric Davis, portrayed Warner as a woman with "violent tendencies," who had attacked his client before.

But all that was to come later. In late September of 2012, for almost a week, no one seemed to know where Warner was.

Her family and friends spent days trying to find her.

In court, Warner's younger brother, David Chaffin, said that the last time he had seen her alive was at the birth of his daughter, just days before Warner died. He said in court that he first suspected foul play shortly after receiving a call from Warner's ex-husband. Michelle hadn't shown up for a regularly scheduled visit to see her young daughter - something she would never do. He grew more worried when she didn't respond to his calls or texts.

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Chaffin and his father traveled to Houston from the Grapeland area to check on her apartment. But her apartment was empty.

In court, jurors learned that Castellano told Warner's family, coworkers and police different stories about her whereabouts.

Castellano told Chaffin he and Warner had argued and she had stormed out of the house, leaving her car and son, and said she had seemed "strung out."

In a call Chaffin recorded between himself and Castellano that was played in court, Chaffin could be heard saying "I've exhausted every lead I have for Michelle. You're the last person I know who's seen her."

Warner, who in high school had dreamed of a career as a lawyer, had taken a new job as a paralegal just weeks before she died.

"She loved it. She was ecstatic about it," her father, Walter Chaffin testified.

Warner graduated from high school at age 16 but later struggled with drugs, spending time in jail and in a halfway house after a 2006 drug conviction.

Chaffin and his mother even agreed to go on the Dr. Phil show to try to turn up more leads. But the day they landed in California to tape the interview, they learned Warner's body had been found, slowly rotting in an oil field 500 miles northwest of Houston. It was so badly decomposed that the medical examiner had to use her fingerprints to identify her.

Castellano also had been interviewed by Dr. Phil, telling a similar story. But days later, he called one of the show's producers and confessed to killing Warner.

Assistant District Attorney Jamie Reyna told jurors in opening statements that Warner died after Castellano choked and strangled her in their bedroom on Sept. 22, 2012.

When their 3-year-old son wandered into the room, where his dead mother was lying on the bed, her tongue was sticking out of her mouth. After the boy asked what was wrong with her, Castellano told him Warner was sleeping, Reyna said.

"That's when he starts trying to get away with murder," she said. Castellano took the boy to his parents' house, in Odessa, then buried Warner's body in a shallow grave near Midland.

Davis, the defense attorney, said Warner and Castellano began arguing that September night and that Castellano grabbed Warner's throat after she hit him.

"He didn't intend she would fall down and break her neck," Davis said.

After that, in a state of shock and panic, Castellano "does some stupid stuff," Davis acknowledged.

"But the state can't show he intentionally killed Michelle Warner," he said.

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